Seven-times Formula 1 motor racing world champion Michael Schumacher, who suffered serious head injuries in a December skiing accident, is making progress and showing signs of waking from an artificial coma, his agent said on Friday.

“Michael is making progress on his way. He shows moments of consciousness and awakening,” Sabine Kehm said in a statement.
Schumacher, 45, slammed his head on a rock while skiing off-piste in the French Alps resort of Meribel on Dec. 29 last year.

The most successful Formula 1 champion of all time has been in a stable but critical condition since then in a hospital in the eastern French city of Grenoble.

Doctors started lowering the retired German racing driver’s sedation at the end of January to wake him up from an artificial coma.

“We are on his side during his long and difficult fight, together with the team of the hospital in Grenoble, and we keep remaining confident,” said the brief statement from Kehm.

Schumacher, who won a record 91 Grand Prix victories, left the sport last year after a disappointing three-year comeback with Mercedes following an earlier retirement from Ferrari at the end of 2006.